Italy's senate could vote on a bill to legalize same-sex civil unions as early as today.  After that it goes to the house, where the bill's backer Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, has more support.  But LGBT rights activists say the legislation has been watered down to gain acceptance conservative and Roman Catholic senators.

After the populist Five-Star movement backed out of an agreement to back the bill - probably to try and score with conservative voters ahead of local elections in the summer - Mr. Renzi was forced to deal with his conservative coalition partners in the New Center Right Party, which extracted a major concession on the parental rights of same-sex couples.  An amendment known as the "stepchild" provision that would have granted parental rights to a non-biological parent in a same-sex union was stripped out of the legislation this week.

Although not as strong as backers wanted, passage would mean that Prime Minister Renzi has succeeded where his predecessors failed.  Many observers believe that the parental rights of same-sex couples would eventually be sorted out in the courts, rather than parliament.

Italy is the last major Western nation not to give legal recognition to same-sex couples, and has faced repeated complaints from European Court of Human Rights over its stance on gay marriage.